Wendell Berry is the poet laureate of America’s farmland. A prolific author of pastoral fiction and verse, he also runs a 125-acre corn farm. This collection of essays spans half a century and looks at economics, marriage, literacy, soil erosion and food production, all through the prism of his small corner of Kentucky. Berry calls for a form of localism guided by ecological sustainability and a pre-industrial pace. “As a farmer, I do almost all of my work with horses. As a writer, I work with a pencil,” he notes. He might be a Luddite but his writing has plenty of relevance: his scathing views on the chasm between what we need and what we consume are persuasive, as is his observation that change is often mistaken for progress. Little known in Britain, his voice is in tune with a swelling chorus of agrarian activists.
• The World-Ending Fire by Wendell Berry is published by Allen Lane (£20). To order a copy for £17 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
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